Oil and gas joint venture Repsol Sinopec is to decommission two 5MW turbines at the Beatrice demonstration project in the Moray Firth, reports ReNews.

The Beatrice demo was built in 2007 as a joint venture between SSE and Talisman. The turbines will be removed between 2024 and 2027 as part of wider plans to wind down the  Beatrice field.

The news comes as work is due to start this year on a 588MW, 84-turbine wind farm: the £2.6 billion Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL) project. The project was given the green light for construction by owners SSE (40%), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) (35%) and SDIC Power (25%) on 23 May. Offshore construction will begin this year and the wind farm is expected to become fully operational in 2019.

Paul Cooley, Director of Renewables at SSE, stated: “We are delighted that Beatrice has achieved Financial Close and we are extremely grateful for all of the support received throughout the development of the project from stakeholders such as the Scottish Government, DECC, HIE, the Highland Council, Moray Council and local communities. Contracts have already been placed with many UK based suppliers, and Siemens intend to undertake turbine blade construction from Siemen’s new manufacturing facility in Hull.”

The wind farm is being developed with a tier 1 supply chain comprising Seaway Heavy Lifting, Subsea 7, Nexans and Siemens.

Christina G. Sorensen, Senior Partner in CIP, said: “CIP’s investment in Beatrice represents one of the largest commitments from a financial sponsor to an offshore wind project, and follows our investment in the German offshore wind project Veja Mate in June 2015. CIP’s ambition is to be a proactive financial investor and project partner in the development, construction and operations phase.”